Discerning Spiritual Things — Major Ian Thomas

Discerning the Tripartite Nature of Man

He had a body, and within that body, he had a soul, just like yours and just like mine. And within that soul, a human spirit. The tripod nature of the man whom God created, spirit and conjunction, soul and conjunction, spirit.

All indispensable, of course, to his function as man. None of us have too much difficulty in determining which is the body. We feed it, decorate it, educate it, in physical skills, that's the body. Sometimes we have a considerable amount of difficulty in determining between the soul and the spirit.

The natural man is aware of his body, very aware of his body, it's the most important part of thinking, it's the part that he wants to preserve. He only vaguely is aware of the fact that he's got a soul.

He simply knows that unless he keeps body and soul together, and that's why he goes to work, somebody's going to bury the body, so he goes to work. But if you asked him to define his soul, he wouldn't have a clue.

But the soul is not to be confused with the human spirit. And the word of God has clearly determined that, Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12, the word of God, the sword of the spirit, quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

It is this that discerns between soul and spirit, in other words, exposes soulish religion and soulish music and soulish ceremonial and sacrament, discerns between the soulish and the spirit. The one is still dead and the other is already, once indwelt by the Holy Spirit of the living God, alive again.

But soulish religion, of course, never raised anybody from the dead. The soul must be awakened that we might turn to Jesus and claim in him that life that only he can restore, because he gave himself for us in order, risen from the dead, to give himself to us.

That's why Ephesians, in chapter 5, verse 14, says, Awake thou that sleepest, that's the soul, totally unaware of its lost condition, awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light, he'll switch you on, he'll give you what it takes to shine.

Christ’s Life as the Source of Human Function

Because in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, was God, by him all things were made, without him was not anything made that was made, he is the creative deity, but in him was life. And it's that life that is in him that gives to man the moral competence to discharge the office which he was made, reveal the glory of God.

It's the life of Christ as the creator within man, the creature, that switches him on. By virtue of his presence within the human spirit, gaining access to the human soul so that he can teach the mind, control the emotions, direct the will, and so govern behavior that others in him see Christ behaving.

Now we've covered that territory as to fresher memories, and the incredible thing is that the Lord Jesus, when he was born at Bethlehem, assumed our humanity. He wasn't superman, any more than, and least of all, superstar, he was just man, in normality.

And he's described as such in the first verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost. That simply means Jesus being man. To be filled with the Holy Ghost is not some unique experience that we have.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is normality. It was for that purpose you and I were created, and when Adam was made in God's image, he never would have reflected God's glory had he not been full of the Holy Ghost.

Through whom the Holy Spirit, God in the triune deity, inhabits a man's humanity, the one through whom Christ made himself available to the Father, Hebrews 14 .9, Christ, who offered himself, body, soul, spirit, and the totality of being, body, soul, spirit, offered himself to God without spot.

How? Through the eternal spirit. Through the eternal spirit. Every area of his being, his mind, emotion, and will governed by the Father through the spirit motivating his body so that everything he did, said, and was declared deity.

He has revealed him. And we saw that yesterday in the first chapter there of the epistle to the Hebrews, very beautifully rendered, the express image of God's person, the outshining of the divine. That was the Lord Jesus, very beautifully expressed also in John's Gospel in the first chapter and the 18th verse, no man has ever seen God as God at any time.

The only unique son, the only begotten God who is incarnate, clothed with the humanity that he created, the Word made flesh, the only begotten God who is in the bosom, in the intimate presence of the Father, he has declared him.

And I like the way this is put. He has revealed him. He has brought him out where he, God, can be seen. He has interpreted him and made him known. Now in fulfilling that office, the Lord Jesus was being no more nor less than man, full of the Holy Ghost, totally monopolized in every area of his being, by the Father, who through him could reveal righteousness.

The Father behaving, don't call me good. The words even that I speak unto you, though through my lips they are given utterance and become articulate, do not derive from me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, John 14 and verse 10.

The Father who lives in me, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter what I am, he does the work. He's at work in me, and it's my privilege as man, by mutual agreement between all three of us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to place my humanity so at my Father's disposal that when you look at me you see his goodness, the only person who's to be congratulated and the only possible explanation of the life I live.

My Father living in me, somebody living in somebody. This of course is underlined for us in the Colossian epistle in the 15th verse of the first chapter, Colossians 1 and verse 15. He is the one through whose precious shed blood the apostle here affirms we have forgiveness of our sins, that demanded the redemptive act, but in order that he might accomplish the redemptive act he had to be born as he was, coming as he did, conceived of the Holy Ghost so that he could be the man that he was.

The Incarnation and the Revelation of God

And only because of the man that he was, in all his sinlessness, could he accomplish the redemptive act. He had to come as he came, conceived of the Holy Ghost to be what he was, in his utter sinlessness declaring the perfection of deity in order to do what he did.

But as we have already heard explained again and again and must constantly and proclaim if we are to preach the gospel, he had to come as he came to do what he did because of the man that he was so that we can have the life that he lived.

Because the life the Lord Jesus lived then in his own body is the Christian life that he lives now in your body and mine in the measure in which we make our humanity is available now to him as God as he then as man made his humanity available to the Father as God.

Isn't it simple? So gloriously simple. It's the divine logic. In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, verse 15, that is of the first chapter of the epistle of the Colossians, he is the exact likeness of the unseen God.

He's the visible representation of the invisible. There inherently, of course, is presupposed the humanity of Jesus Christ because he is co-equal in deity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And yet we're told 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 16 that no man has seen God at any time nor can see God.

It's beyond his capacity. And yet here we have Jesus whom we know to be God, the creator, the one by whom all things were made, in whom was that life which alone gives to man the moral competence to discharge his office in revealing glory, walking this earth in the flesh and blood of our humanity.

Man, the man Christ Jesus, God. And yet in him, a God who cannot be seen, we are to see a God who cannot be seen. How can you see in a God who cannot be seen a God who cannot be seen? Only because he emptied himself, humbled himself, made himself of no reputation, made himself nothing and was born a human being.

So that in that physical, visible and audible body, the Father was prepared to prepare for him. He could give a physical, visible and audible expression of an invisible self, totally monopolized by the invisible God.

New Birth and the Mystery of Godlikeness

Now, let's grasp that because this is the heart of the gospel. This is new birth. This is spiritual regeneration. This is the fullness of the Holy Ghost, normality, normality, truth about God, truth about man.

And as we saw yesterday, the truth about God, because he was the truth about man, because he was the God who created man to be the truth about God. Let's make man as our image. And the Lord Jesus magnificently demonstrated what is no longer a mystery, it's an open secret, the mystery of God-likeness, the Father in the Son.

Look at me, see him. The mystery of God-likeness, the Son now in you. When we have been restored to normality, we can turn to all creation and say, look at me and see what Jesus is like. And that, as we reminded ourselves a couple of nights ago, is to be evangelized.

In the day when seeing him as he is, we will be like him, he'll look at us and see precisely what God saw when he looked at Adam when first he made him, himself. Then we've been evangelized. And that exclusively, of course, is the measure in which we've been evangelized, in how many Bible verses you've memorized, not how many doctrines that you've mastered, not how many souls you may have precipitated to some decision for Jesus.

That doesn't determine your spirituality. There's only one thing that determines your spirituality, how much looking at you do others see of God. Paul came to that determination, as you may remember, on the road to Damascus.

He records it in the fourth chapter of his second epistle, I beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I was the arch-persecutor, I was the enemy of the cross, I sought to destroy anybody who dared to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and then suddenly, blinded, I was flung, sightless to the earth, by a light bright in the sun at new day.

But in that brightness, I looked into the face of Jesus Christ and saw in a man all that can be seen of God. And I realized what man is all about, and why he was made. Because the mystery became an open secret for me in that moment.

And from that time on, the only thing that mattered to me was that Jesus Christ be given in my humanity, not, alas, as he would admit, to perfection here on earth, but pressing toward that mark, the prize of the glory of Christ Jesus.

He said, my supreme preoccupation is that others in me now see as much of God as others in Christ saw the Father. Paul's discovered why he was created. That's why it didn't matter much to him, all the things that he suffered, as the evidence of his apostleship, as Charles indicated in the earlier session.

Because he knew, he knew perfectly well the only thing that would survive would be that which alone he could take with him, the gold, the silver, and the precious stones. It wasn't his business on earth simply to make a career, earn his income, secure his old age, make sure he got a pension, impress the peers, hit the headlines.

He said, that's trash to me. Long since I've recognized what it is, trash. All I need to be is one who is illuminated by the life of Jesus Christ, because I'm receiving that for which I was created, his life, so that that life can be translated through me into tangible behavior.

See, as we indicated yesterday, these lamps are functional only because they're receiving that for which they were created, but they're not doing that to draw attention to themselves. Only so that you and I can enjoy the light, that's all.

And when you and I receive Christ as our Redeemer, it isn't so that we can draw attention to ourselves. It's so that others in our presence will be conscious of the light. And God is light, that's all.

And Jesus, being the truth about man, could not help but be the truth about God, because the truth about man is that he produced man to be the truth about God. In the middle of the night, there was a knock on the door, and maybe Nicodemus was surprised to find Jesus still awake.

Jesus, Nicodemus, and Spiritual Regeneration

Still up and about? Oh yes, said Jesus, waiting for you. What do you mean, waiting for me? You're a stranger to me. And I imagine the Lord Jesus might well have said to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John's Gospel, you're right, I'm a stranger to you, but you're no stranger to me.

Come here, sit down. Nobody's a stranger to Jesus Christ. The woman by the well of Samaria, of whom we've heard from Charles, she was no stranger to Jesus Christ. Said he to her, go and fetch your husband.

Don't have a husband, right? Said the Lord Jesus. You've lived with five men. You've got another man now, and he's not your husband. Bit of a shock, wouldn't you say? She said, I perceive you're a prophet.

And what was her story when she went back to the city? Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. He knew the worst about me and loved me just the same. There's only one who loves like that in Jesus, is his name.

If you met somebody who knew every last thing about you, would you invite your friends to go and talk with him? Would you? No, he might spill the beans. But you see, her compelling message was such that she recognized in the Lord Jesus, not somebody who exposed her sin just to hurt her, but to heal her.

And she knew that the needs of others were just as great as her own. She was just the plaything of wicked men. So I imagine that Nicodemus was as surprised as was that woman, indeed, as was Zacchaeus up the tree, pretending that he was a sycamore bud.

Do you remember? Hiding himself behind the leaves. He wasn't the first man to try that on. God can see through the leaves. I said, don't kid yourself. If you're running away from God, he'll find you. But he'll find you because he loves you.

He came to seek and save that which is lost. The most wonderful thing in the world is to know that you're lost. As we have remarked already, you don't throw lost things in a trash can, you look in a trash can for lost things.

That's why Jesus was always being blamed for keeping bad company. Aren't you glad he keeps bad company? You probably wouldn't be here in Bible school if you didn't. To seek and save that which is lost.

Come in, sit down. And Nicodemus, I imagine, said in so many words, Master, you're extraordinary. You're really quite exceptional. I've come to the conclusion there's no possible explanation for your life but God.

I mean, the things you say and the things you do. No explanation but God said he. Master, we know that a teacher comes from God. Not just from the local seminary or Bible school, from God. That's what folks recognized about John the Baptist.

He was a man sent from God. If there's one thing you should covet more than another, it's that others should recognize in you, not that you are an alumnus of this, that, or the other, but that you're a man and a woman who's been sent from God.

And that quality of life, of course, is miraculous. Because there's only one person who can engineer it, and he only will and does in the measure in which you let him. Nobody could do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Well, Lord Jesus said, you're absolutely right, Nicodemus. As a matter of fact, I am exceptional. As a matter of fact, I am the exception. I mean, I can't tell you that I have a brilliant educational background.

I never went to college. I can't tell you that my mother was unusually wealthy, or the man people call my father, because they weren't. Just tradesmen. In point of fact, Nicodemus, I'm very, very ordinary, very ordinary.

When I was born, there wasn't even room in the inn where my mother hoped to spend the night. Very ordinary. I was born in a manger. But you're absolutely right, Nicodemus. There is only one possible explanation for the things I say and the life I live and the things I do, God.

God in the ordinary. The very ordinary. Because you see, Nicodemus, when God is in the ordinary, he puts the extra into the ordinary, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. That's why there's hope for you and for me.

God hasn't chosen the mighty and the noble, the wealthy and the popular. Those are the things that people strive after. Not least of all, within Christian ministry. That's what I want. I want to get to the top.

I want people to gaze at the lamp, not just enjoy the light, that's purely incidental. Look and gaze at the lamp. That's why John and Peter, remember, laughed at those when they had healed the man who was lame from his mother's womb.

They looked at them with wonder, love, and praise. Peter said, don't be so stupid. Don't imagine it's my holiness or his, or our power. Utter nonsense. We're simply making ourselves available now to the Lord Jesus as God in us, as he once for thirty-three years made himself available as man to the Father as God in him, that's all.

And any old dream I will do that's open both ends and nothing in the middle. The water will flow. You're right, Nicodemus. There isn't any one possible explanation for anything I've ever said or am likely to say and will say or do, God, God in the man.

You see, I'm exceptional because, Nicodemus, for the very first time in all human history since Adam fell, my Father on earth has a man, a real man, not a man like you, Nicodemus, not a man like your peers, but a man as I, my Father, and the Holy Spirit created man to be Adam as he was in his innocency, because I've come to demonstrate the innocency of a pre-fallen Adam.

There's nothing more going for me at this moment than was going for him then, because he was created in innocence, and I was born in innocence, the only man ever born who was real man, because the only other real man was Adam and Eve, whose names, plural, God called Adam, and they weren't born, they were created.

And ever since Adam was created, no other real man has ever been born, except myself, because I'm the exception. Every other man born since Adam fell was born dead, alienated from the life of God, empty of that divine contents that makes man functional, enables him to tick.

I didn't graduate into the sinlessness of my humanity, whereby you can, looking at me, see my Father. I was born this way. Man was born uninhabited by God, inhabited by sin, ever since Adam fell. I was born uninhabited by sin, inhabited by God, from the moment of conception.

I am exceptional. But, of course, my Father, I, and the Holy Spirit agreed upon this, as between all three of us, that I would come into this world first, to demonstrate what we had in mind when first we made man, so that in the sinlessness and innocence of my humanity, I can accomplish a plan that was agreed as between myself, the Father, and the Holy Ghost, in the eternal ages of the past.

I am the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world. But for that reason, you see, Nicodemus, I had to come as I came, to be what I am, so that I can do what I will, so that you can have one day, and that'll make you tick.

As a matter of fact, you see, Nicodemus, I came to demonstrate a very simple proposition. Now, this is a proposition that I've spelled out countless times, and I find it extremely helpful, as I will illustrate in a moment by a very simple sketch that some of you will recognize, which I have used for nearly half a century, whether I'm talking to a little kid of seven, eight, or nine, or whether a gray-bearded professor, who are far more difficult to talk to, because they aren't as smart as a kid of seven, eight, and nine, except a man become like a little child, be converted.

The Demands of Holiness and the Standard of God’s Righteousness

He won't enter the kingdom until spiritual regeneration has taken place. As Jesus here said to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, you can't see the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean that you won't arrive and be able to look around.

He wasn't talking about that. He said you won't be able to see the kingdom, any more than, as Charles has explained to us, without that meekness of heart that recognizes your need, you'll see God. You'll see all kinds of things happening, but you won't see God in those things that are happening.

You'll be blind. And if you want to know who's going to blind you, I'll give you one guess, but you needn't even guess. It's the God of this world, has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them.

The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here's the proposition. It's not very complicated. You might think it is, but it isn't. But I'll illustrate it in a very simple way, so that you don't miss the point.

Here it is. By virtue of the way God made man, remember this, by virtue of the way God made man, with a body, with a soul, with a human spirit. A human spirit to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who will be given by our moral choice, access to the human soul, so that he can operate within the workshop, govern our behavior and reveal God's character.

Now, by virtue of the way God made us, here's the proposition. Everything that God demands of a man is, from God's point of view, completely logical, according to the divine logic. Not human logic, God's logic.

Every demand that God makes upon a man is, from God's point of view, completely logical. Pause for a moment to discover what it is that God demands of a man, and has every right to demand of a man, in that he made in this way.

Old Testament, be holy. That means whole, be functional. It isn't putting on a pious stance. It isn't sort of behaving religiously, holy, whole, functional. It isn't singing choruses or going to meetings, holy.

And getting a little hot around the neck, you say, how holy? And God says, well, even as I'm holy. In other words, when you are as whole, wholesome, total, as I am, you're okay. That's one demand that God makes upon us, that we are to be as holy as the God who made us in his perfect, unblemished image.

Then the Lord Jesus sort of picks up the story, last verse, fifth chapter of Matthew, and said, he be perfect. And that's a bit too tough, and getting hot around the neck, you say, how perfect? And God, the Lord Jesus says, even as your Father in heaven is perfect, when there's no difference between you and the Father God in heaven, when others looking at you see him, you're okay.

Any complaints? All that God demands of you is that you be as holy as the God who created you in your own likeness, and all the Lord Jesus demands of you is that others looking at you will see exactly what others saw when they looked at him.

Any complaints? If there are some complaints, what are the grounds of your complaint? In whose image has he gone making? For what purpose were you created? So that all creation, looking at man, would know what God was like.

That's why in the person of our Lord Jesus, who was the truth about man, all creation could look at him and know what the Father was like. Not because he was extraordinary, other than the fact that God, by his presence, puts the extra into the ordinary, that's all.

Makes man functional. Well, that's the first part of the proposition. And remember this, that is the sole norm, the sole standard by which God will evaluate you. There is no other. That was the folly of those who are described in the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, for whom Paul had much concern, because he had been one of them, his kith and kin.

He said, my concern for Israel is that they might be saved, presupposing, of course, they weren't saved, as indeed they were not. They had religion, up to the neck, but they weren't saved. And he goes on to say, they have a zeal of God, indeed they did.

They had much more zeal than most professing evangelicals. They only go to church on Sunday and watch television Sunday evening. Jews didn't. They conformed to the party line. They have a zeal of God, he said.

First two of Romans and chapter 10, but not according to knowledge. Not according to knowledge. They had a form of religion, but denied the power thereof. You'd be surprised how many professing Christians, evangelical, born-again people, students in Bible school, don't want to know enough that's going to change their lives.

Did you know that? They're scared stiff of discovering what it really means to be a Christian. You'd have to throw away your transistor. You wouldn't be seen walking around hooked on that as much as others are hooked on gambling or drugs or alcohol.

We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear that. So bear in mind, there is only one standard. Paul went on to say of those, there in Romans 10, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

What was the nature of their ignorance? He said, being ignorant of God's righteousness. Being ignorant of God's righteousness. And being ignorant of God's righteousness, they went about till they established their own righteousness.

But, of course, they shopped around to find the kind of standard that would be compatible with their way of life. Don't be fanatical. I mean, having been created in God's image, don't be that fanatical that you want to discharge the office and be functional so that other people looking at you will know what God is like.

I mean, that's taking things too far, isn't it, really? When you buy your new Cadillac, don't expect it to go at 60 miles an hour. I mean, settle for 15 or 20 or 35. That's okay. You didn't pay all that much for it.

Only 25, 30, 35, 40 thousand. Or get a Rolls Royce. Make sure there's an engine in it. But don't expect it to go. Now, that's what the average Christian says about his Christian life. I sing and wave my arms about for Jesus, but please, please don't expect me to conform to the minimal demands that he makes of anybody who dares to say that God, my creator, has re-inhabited my humanity so that he can be God in the man.

Forget it. Just give me a nice little chorus to sing. And pass the plate around as long as you don't want much more than a dollar, but tax deducted. This is the Christianity that's being sold today. It's nauseating.

Every demand that God makes upon a man is, from God's point of view, completely illogical. As holy as the God who made you, and as perfect as the Father God in heaven. And here's the next part of the proposition.

God as the Hidden Factor in Christian Living

From man's point of view, man in his fallen condition, that includes the regenerate, who've opted for a carnal Christianity that doesn't distinguish them from the folks next door. Remember that. From man's point of view, in his fallen condition, utterly unreasonable.

That's why you get hot around the neck when somebody tells you the quality of life that God in heaven has the absolute right to expect and demand of you the moment you dare to say, I'm a Christian. Every demand that God makes upon you is, from God's point of view, completely illogical.

Only from man's point of view, in his fallen condition, is it utterly unreasonable because, in the divine logic that makes divinely possible what otherwise cannot but be humanly unreasonable, there's a hidden factor that's absent in human reason.

And that hidden factor is God himself. God himself. Who so engineered man that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to his function, his humanity. So that man in normality is to be distinguished from the animal kingdom by a quality of life and a behavior that has absolutely no possible explanation but God himself in the man.

The hidden factor. That factor for which man was made. That's why the Lord Jesus, assuming our humanities, without that factor, I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing. Without my Father, the hidden factor, in me, I can do nothing.

And that's why, without me, the hidden factor, restored to clothe myself with your humanity, without me, you can do nothing. You just happen to be made that way. Every demand that God makes upon a man, from God's point of view, completely illogical.

From man's point of view, in his fallen condition, utterly unreasonable. Because within the divine logic that represents the marginal difference between what God is and you and I now are, a hidden factor.

God himself. God himself. That's why the moment you detach your Christianity from Christ, all you've got is a dead religion. Just as useless, impotent, and powerless as any other pagan religion. It may satisfy your soulish appetite to play church, but it won't raise you from the dead.

That's why, if you detach your religion from God, all you've got is a legalistic straitjacket. Because your religion, detached from God, will impose certain behavior patterns upon you, that you will be totally incapable of yourself, even at that minimal level of satisfying.

Of course, detach the person of the Holy Spirit from your activity, and all you've got is programs, entertainment, ostentatious shows of human ability. Has nothing to do with God. You see, religion without God is a legalistic straitjacket, Christianity without Christ, a dead religion, and activity, religious activity, apart from the Holy Spirit, a nauseating fraud.

So what do you think that Jesus came to do? If the hidden factor is that which alone makes divinely possible, what otherwise cannot but be humanly unreasonable, he came to restore the hidden factor to fallen men.

Give you back what it takes to be. And of course, that's the important thing about the gospel, isn't it, becoming? The emphasis today is become a Christian. God isn't all that interested in you becoming what you're not intending to be.

How many of those who become Christians raise their hands, walk the front, shake the preacher? How many intend to be what they've become? Very few. Very few. That's why in any given week of meetings where it is honestly declared, we're going to talk about the reality of the Christian life, what it means to be what you've become.

Do you know how many will attend from that showcase window on Sunday? Never more than 10%. Because the church has long since settled for people who want to become, but have absolutely no intention of being what they say they've become.

So if you're that stupid to tell them that you're going to tell them what it means to be what having become, they're not intending to be, then they stay home. And I'm not kidding. I've been moving from one church congregation of all denominational ilks for the last 56 years, over half a century, and so I'm not a novice.

And of course, my heart doesn't break when I find that out of the 5 ,000 or 10 ,000 or 2 ,000 or 500 on the Sunday, you've only got that minimal few huddled together in an empty auditorium. Because we've settled for that, not in the East, not in communist Korea, not in East Germany, not in those countries like Russia, not in communist China.

Because when you become a Christian there, you can only become a Christian if you've already settled for the consequences of being what you have become. We don't know that kind of Christianity in the United States.

It's playboy stuff, multi-million-dollar show business, but Jesus came to be what at Bethlehem he was born to become, man, just man. Well, here's the very simple illustration. Why does an oil need, why does a lamp, rather, need oil in order to light, in order to shine?

The Lamp, the Car, and the Necessity of Divine Life

And the answer is very simple. Don't make it complicated. Don't turn it into some theological or philosophical proposition. Just face the facts and fly. Why does an oil lamp need oil in order to shine?

The answer is, very simply, it's made that way. That's all. It's just made that way. Somebody discovered that in oil there was the potential to produce light. All it needed was the means whereby that potential could be released, so he scratched his head for a little while, came up with an oil lamp, not because an oil lamp can produce light, it cannot, but simply because it was designed to be the means whereby the potential in oil could be released.

Period. So, when you get any light from an oil lamp, you don't congratulate the oil lamp, you congratulate the oil, without which it is nothing, has nothing, can do nothing. You could hang it from the ceiling, but it would be useless there, just like a potato.

If you've got an oil lamp, of course, on the table without oil, well, you might just as well have a cabbage for all the light you'll get. So what's the important thing about an oil lamp? It's made that way.

Some of you drove here. Why does your car need gas? Don't make it complicated. It's made that way. It can release energy. And that energy can be turned into motion. All it needed was the means whereby that potential in gas, releasing energy, can be turned into motion.

So he scratched his head a little longer than the man who made the oil lamp, and came up with the internal combustion engine. Not because an internal combustion engine can reduce motion, it cannot. Only because it was designed specifically to be the means whereby the potential in gas could be released and produced motion.